and went on to provide the answer: "Not long!" Branch writes, "Already shouts echoed and anticipated his refrain at a driving pace, above cries of encourage- ment and a low roar of anticipation." King continued, "How long? Not long! Because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice. How long? Not long! Because mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord." T he voting-rights bill became law on the sixth day of August, 1965, with Rosa Parks and King and the other principal civil-rights leaders present for the signing ceremony, at the Capitol. Almost from that moment, in Branch's telling, the reader has the sensation of watching history escape the control of the book's two main characters. The principal story lines (better balanced between the two men than in the sec- ond volume) are Johnson's sinking fast into the Vietnam quagmire, and King's increasing isolation as his mission ex- pands to challenge America's funda- mental social inequalities. The effect is like watching two bio-pics simultane- ously. And, thanks to F.B.I. wiretaps and Oval Office tapes, the reader is at all times aware of each man's calcula- tions about the other. Before the end of 1965, Johnson had approved General William Westmore- land's request for more than a hundred thousand troops to supplement those al- ready engaged in propping up the Sai- gon regime. In the course of Branch's book, the agonizing in the Oval Office, as the President alternately rails at and pleads with his advisers about the un- winnable Vietnam dilemma, starts to seem more farcical than tragic. "The North Vietnamese just said, 'fuck you,' " he tells a sympathetic U.S. senator. "They're winning-why would they want to talk?" George Ball, the Under- Secretary of State, tells the President in a secret memo that "humiliation would be more likely" than achieving U.S. objec- tives on the batdefield, while the histo- rian and Presidential adviser Arthur ScWesinger, Jr., publiclywarns of the ter- rible consequences of "either enlargement or withdrawal." Bewildered and bellicose, Johnson dreaded being seen as a President too indecisive to win a war. He put a de- termined face on the State of the Union address in January, 1966, and vowed to continue the Great Society "while we fight in Vietnam." Still, he confided to one of his generals that he felt "a good deal of ice cracking" under his feet. All these developments stoked the growing radicalism in SNCC, which was soon beyond the reach even of King's persuasive powers. He could only gri- mace when James Forman or Stokely Carmichael provided the media with inflammatory sound bites. 'Were going to tear this county up," Carmichael told one gathering. King and the S.C.L.C. had hardly begun to plan the next chap- ter in nonviolent racial progress when the nation was confronted by the spec- tacle of the Watts riots, which began just five days after the Voting Rights Act was signed. Ten days after the signing, King risked his first public criticism of the Vietnam War. "Reporters bolted for telephones," Branch notes, after King, in an address to the S.C.L.C.' s annual con- vention in Birmingham, announced his intention to write personal appeals for peace negotiations to world leaders, in- cluding Ho Chi Minh. A month later, at the President's insistence, King and Arthur Goldberg, the Ambassador to the United Nations, engaged in a frank seventy-minute give-and-take on the issue of Vietnam. Speaking afterward to the U.N. press corps, King outlined his "unthinkable" proposals-a halt to bombing, negotiations with the Viet- cong, and U.N. recognition ofCommu- nist China. The fury of the Administra- tion at this and the disdain of the media nearly matched the negative reaction of the Mrican-American leadership class. F.B.I. agents, listening in on a confer- ence call between King and his advis- ers, heard a beleaguered King say, with a sigh, that he had to find a way to "grace- fully pull out." Both Vietnam and civil rights began to play poorly with much of the elector- ate as the midterm congressional elec- tions approached. Richard Nixon, Ger- ald Ford, Strom Thurmond, and other Republicans blamed Johnson for not conducting the war vigorously enough. At the polls, liberals signalled their lack of support for the war, and the congres- sional Democrats lost badly. In early March of 1967, Robert F. Kennedy sug- gested that the heavy bombing of Viet- nam be suspended. Within twenty-four hours, headlines carried news of Kenne- THE UMHOEFER PRIZE FOR ACHIEVEMENT IN HUMANITIES HONORS THESE RECIPIENTS RICHARD GROSSMAN, EDITOR BARRY MOSER, ILLUSTRATOR A 1êar VVith Emerson David R. Godine · 2003 ISBN 1-56792-234-1 ALICE A. CARTER, AUTHOR ERIC MUELLER, DESIGNER Cecilia Beaux: A Modern Painter In The Guilded Age Rizzoli New York. 2005 ISBN 0-8478-2708-9 SHEROD SANTOS, TRANSLATOR Greek ýric Poetry w.w. Norton · 2005 ISBN 0-393-06056-X Prize Sponsored by Arts and Hum.anities Foundation PO Box 16326, Minneapolis, MN 55416 ph. 952-938-4972 The3tertJ\"h; .com Up-to-date reviews, news, and tickets Broadway · Off-Broadway · Nationwide Over 510,000 members enjoy our theater discounts and special offers. JOIN FOR FREE AND YOU MAY WIN TICKETS TO A HIT SHOW! visit www.TheaterMania.com I' I:,: . lstant Valentine's Gift Pearl Necklace and Earrings Wrapped In A Silky Purse $75 With Priority Shipping 877-327-5489 Nww.PearIGuys.com ''I (' \ :: '" '; .11 ....- II "" _ .- Cruise St. Barths And The Virgin Islands In Style. Arabella Cruises www.cruisearabella.com 800-395-1343 Also available for corporate & private charter ::,I I ACT I V E V A CAT ION S II ", AÇNßG QAQâ BIKING. HIKING · MULTI SPORT I - . . ' ,ì ,,_ f , or a free catalog ca1l800-GO-ACTIVE I or visit www.backroads.com/tny THE NEW YORKER, JANUARY 23 & 30, 2006 89